10k to Half - How to best fill the time

Last week I finished my first 10k in 10 years. I am back running this year and have completed a couple of 5k events and baked my way round a very hot and humid 10k in 54:20 (I am aware of how slow I am).

Running is part of a weight loss plan at the moment but I hope to return it to its pride of place along side golf, chess-boxing and cribage in my pantheon of sports.

My question dear forum is how do I best fill the time between now and a half marathon I have signed up for in late October. I have 16 weeks till the event and need to know how best to condition before then.

Here is the kicker. Yesterday I went out after a few days rest and ran 10.5 miles. I found it cheerful. Having hurt badly doing 10k last week I ran 17km with only a small water bottle for company. It was a major mental breakthough to realise that kind of distance. I was slow yes, but I now know I can do the distance on a 'good day'.

My two dilemas.

1) how to best use the long lead time before the half (flat course, likely about 12C on the day)

2) should I leave off the 10+ mile distances? (am I asking for an injury)

Not a bad dilema to have, but it seems to me to be an opportunity not to be missed. Most training plans dont seem to deal with this scenario.

Training is not all about the long run. You should be slowly and gradually increasing your total distance that you run each week, not just the length of your longest run. Running 10+ miles is not bad in and of itself, but in general your long run should not account for more than 30-45% of your total weekly mileage.

I take it you have no formal training plan. Why not look at some existing half-marathon plans (you can google, or look at halhigdon.com and good old runnersworld.com for some examples) and see how they are structured?

Once you're up to running around 30mpw, you can throw in some tempo runs.

I am pretty clear that my long run should not swamp my week. I am pretty clear that some mixed tempo work will help my overall pace. Also that my cycling to work on some rest days helpw tih some cross training when my legs are tired.

The problem comes with the shortage of step up plans. Most of the ones I have found start with the week 1 long run being 3-4 miles. Which seems to me to be a waste. A regression on my current distances.

Is it such a bad thing to put in close to race distances for quite a few weeks before the event? Or am I asking for trouble?

Chess boxing is exactly the hybrid it suggests. Wiki it if you are curious.

we need more info. give us a breakdown of your current weekly routine. a beginner plan usually starts with a lower mileage LR, if you're more intermediate, you can do a longer one to start. more advanced you could do a LR of equal or greater distance than a half marathon. it depends on what you're current training is. for my next cycle, my LR is between 11 miles and 16 miles, so it all depends.

if you currently run 20 miles for example, you could easily do 4-5miles 3x a week and a LR of 6 or 7 miles to start adding in tempos/speed work/hills slowly as you build mileage.

I would recommend adding another day or two of running - either a short run before one of your cycling days (or after, but it's much easier to run first then cycle), or replace one or both of the rest days with a run (or both). (I would run the day before your long run.) As I said before, you should strive to keep your longest run to a smaller percentage of your weekly running. Then you should increase the distances of your shorter runs; then increase your long run as well, when you can safely.

You don't really need a formal plan unless you have more concrete goals. Just increase your total running distance 5-8% a week, with a cutback or no-increase week every 3 or 4 weeks.

yeah i agree with ilanarama. you could def add some easy runs on those rest days. maybe 3 the day before, then in a couple of weeks, change the other rest day to a run also. how hard to you bike to work? if it's "easy" you may want to move the intervals to wed to give yourself more rest between LR and workout. but like ilana said, it's easier to run then bike.

1) you think I can best use the time by inserting more runs and have less or zero rest days.

2) The long run is fine where it is

I am not sure I will go anywhere near removing the rest days. Its a formula that has worked well for me getting from Jan (300lbs on the couch) to March 5k to July 10k, completely injury free. This week I will run about 19 miles and will have cycled anouther 24. And want the free time to spend with my family.

I am wary of my long run being such a large percentage of my weekly total. I read a lot of advice (including in this thread) against that, but the advice essentially says "Dont do it" instead of giving a reason.

The main reason against having the LR half or more of your weekly mileage is that it's a relatively large load on your muscles, and therefore it increases the risk of injury. You are also less likely to injure yourself during the actual race, and have a more enjoyable race, if your race does not itself constitute half or more of your weekly mileage, which is why we recommend that you increase your overall mileage as you move from the 10K to half distance.

Run 4 to 5 x per week. Look at a Hal Higdon training plan (or others online) to get an idea of the mileage volume between beginner and intermediate at the start and end of the training plan. If you are low on miles, work to build that in the coming weeks and make a 12 week training plan. Higdon adds x-training so that may fit with your bike commute.

Try to merge your schedule and the chosen plan such that you either have a rest day or easy running day between hard workouts, i.e. 2 speedwork sessions or more likely the LR and speedwork. Think rollercoaster of hard/easy days.

Plug your 10k race time (albeit heat impaired) into the McMillan pace calculator (Google it) to get an idea of pace ranges for easy, long and speedwork.

Note that some of my running buddies do lower mileage, even for marathon training, such that their LR can be >40% of their weekly volume. It works for some but as a general rule, higher overall volume should give the best results.

A lot of this depends on your goals, recent running history and schedule, i.e. how much time you want to devote to your goal without doing to much too soon and risking an overuse injury.

I have 16 weeks till the event and need to know how best to condition before then.

My two dilemas.

1) how to best use the long lead time before the half (flat course, likely about 12C on the day)

2) should I leave off the 10+ mile distances? (am I asking for an injury)

Forgot to mention, 16 weeks is typically a perfect time frame to do a half marathon training cycle. Some do it as short as 8-12 weeks, but 16 weeks gives you 4 weeks of solid base building before a 12 week training cycle. My next half training cycle is 18 weeks (fairly long), but gives me time to adjust in case. This starts after 3 months of base building.

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